


Blood Ties

by crookedspoon



Series: Exchange Fics [44]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Newborn Children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-12 03:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20557490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedspoon/pseuds/crookedspoon
Summary: Damian had dismissed the news as unimportant, at first.





	Blood Ties

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snowshus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowshus/gifts).

> Many thanks to [ictus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ictus) for the beta!

Her hair was purple. So were her eyes. Glowing and pupil-less like her mother's.

It shouldn't have unsettled him as much as it did. After all, the alien herself had never had that effect on him. She was a warrior, and had proven herself in battle time and time again. Damian could respect that.

But this...

At first, he had dismissed the news as unimportant, when Father and Pennyworth had shaken Grayson's hand proudly and embraced him. Damian couldn't fault Pennyworth for the sentimentality, but Father should know better than to express how happy he was for Grayson. It had been strange to hear Father speak of happiness in the first place, about a thing that might not even come to be as they expected. It had been just a cluster of cells back then. Nothing to get excited about.

None of them had been rational about it. They had looked at it from a solely human viewpoint, without the complications and unknowns that cross-breeding might bring. Granted, Superman and _his _family seemed to have no trouble, but he was yet another species. His was physiologically closer to humans. None of Damian's research had yielded any information on human-Tamaranean couplings and their offspring.

Perhaps his expectations had, in part, been childish hope. He had _not _wanted this tiny being to come into existence. And now here she was, and he would... have to live with sharing Grayson with her.

It was not as though Damian _needed _Grayson or anything, yet Grayson's increasing focus on his previously unborn child had irritated Damian somewhat. Since Father's return, they had barely seen each other, and when they did, it was either to work together on a case, or during a family holiday. When the topic had shifted to his alien girlfriend's wellbeing, as it inevitably did, Damian had to excuse himself. Grayson couldn't even stop daydreaming or texting his girlfriend when he sought out Damian simply to 'spend time with him' since they had neglected to meet in so long.

Damian loathed the appearance of those goofy grins on Grayson's face, because they made it obvious what he was thinking about. They were an insult. Grayson pretended to want to spend time with Damian to make him feel included, and then he _ignored _Damian. Damian didn't take well to being ignored.

But it wasn't just that. Grayson's inability to focus extended to his vigilante work. Instead of holding back because he was going to be a father, he threw himself ever more recklessly into danger, especially when a case involved children in whatever capacity. And Damian only had knowledge of the times he was around to save Grayson's neck. He did not want to fathom how bad it was when Grayson was out alone. 

And now that she was here, she would be taking up even more of Grayson's time. Damian resented that.

"Do you want to hold your niece, Damian?" Grayson asked, startling Damian out of his thoughts. He was holding his daughter in the crook of his arm like an offering, or a loaf of bread. She was looking at him with big, curious eyes, her chubby fingers furling and unfurling one by one.

"She is not my niece," Damian scoffed. The audacity to even suggest that this halfling had ties to the great al Ghul bloodline! Damian would not stand for it. "We are not related by blood."

Starfire eyed him, her expression unreadable. Damian could detect no sign of anger or disappointment, yet he felt apprehension creeping up his shoulders nonetheless.

Grayson, on the other hand, was more expressive. He hid the flash of hurt in his eyes with a smile, the way he always did, but he wasn't good enough to hide anything from Damian.

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that. Still, I consider _you _family, and I hope you'll think of her the same one day."

He ruffled Damian's hair then, and Damian endured it stoically, ignoring the indignant heat in his cheeks. Grayson was the only one who had earned the privilege to show his affection for Damian this openly.

Damian huffed softly. He didn't know why her existence bothered him so much. It wasn't like Grayson had been spending all of his free time with Damian before. They were both very busy, Damian more so than Grayson sometimes, between patrolling Gotham, spearheading the Teen Titans, and doing his homework assignments to keep both Father and Pennyworth happy.

Father had no qualms about accepting the half-alien baby, although his awkwardness about holding her showed.

"I never got to hold Damian like this," he told Grayson, a curiously soft expression on his face. "Cherish her."

Damian resented the reminder of his own infancy. "Why would you? She's useless. She doesn't _do _anything to deserve your love."

"Damian," Father warned.

Grayson automatically held up a hand to indicate he would be handling this, even as he stared at Damian with stark bewilderment, as though he could not believe what Damian had said. He took a moment to recover. Then he laughed.

"She's my daughter, Damian. She doesn't _have _to do anything. I'll love her just the same. You see, babies are just unfinished humans—"

"But she's _not _a human!" Damian snapped.

The sudden noise startled the babe. Her crying made Father uncomfortable; he looked at a loss for what to do – a very uncharacteristic look on a man who barked orders as naturally as breathing – and his relief was visible when Starfire picked up her daughter to soothe her.

"Is that what you're having trouble with?" Grayson placed a gentle hand on Damian's shoulder and gave him a nudge. "Let's go outside for a moment."

Grayson walked toward the door and opened it. Grudgingly, Damian followed. His heart was thudding against his chest, as though his body was preparing for a fight.

"What's the matter with you?" Grayson asked, once he had closed the door behind them. "Are you jealous?"

Damian clicked his tongue. "Do not insult me by talking to me as if I were a child. Of course I am _not _jealous. Why would you even think that?"

"I don't know." Grayson shrugged. "Maybe you liked spending time with me before, and now you feel threatened because I'll have to devote more of it to Mar'i now."

"Threatened? Please." Damian puffed out his chest and crossed his arms in front of it. "I thought you knew me better than that, Grayson. She cannot even hold shuriken, much less throw them. What possible threat could she pose?"

And perhaps that was the crux of the matter. Perhaps it had been absurd to imagine this baby to emerge as a skilled fighter even though she had received no training so far. But surely, Damian had thought, she would have been able to begin right away. Or at least have the ability to blast energy beams from her eyes, the way he had seen Starfire do.

Perhaps if she had been able to do any of these things, Damian would be less upset. He would have an adversary worthy of a fight – one he could test himself against, and win.

He should have known better, though. Kent cannot even fly yet, and many of his other superpowers are erratic, so why had he expected Grayson's daughter to be any different? (Possibly, because she's Grayson's, and not Superman's. Damian considers both Grayson and Starfire adequately competent. Superman not so much.)

"You're right. I'm sorry." Grayson winked, indicating that he was not sorry at all. Sometimes, this habit of his irritated Damian. As it did now.

Damian sniffed haughtily. He was not going to admit that he missed working together with Grayson, that it was entirely different to working with Father.

Now, Grayson would have even less time for an unscheduled team-up, and why wouldn't he? She was his blood kin. Those were ties that meant something. Unlike this partnership that they used to have and that had become tenuous with time.

"Come here," Grayson said as he knelt down and pulled Damian into a hug.

"Unhand me at once, Richard!" Damian growled but made no move to stop him.

"Just give me a second," Grayson murmured against his neck as he squeezed Damian tighter. "What I'm trying to say is that you're still my little brother. Nothing is going to change that. I hope you know that."

Damian felt his cheeks heat again, though this time it was not because of indignation. Or perhaps a little bit because of it. "Don't call me little."

Grayson's chest rippled against him as he laughed. "My bad. I'll strive to be better."

Damian had never understood why, but something about Grayson's laughter had a reassuring effect on him. Like everything would turn out well in the end. Damian had never shared this kind of optimism, trusting instead in his own abilities to turn a situation to his advantage.

"I expect nothing less," Damian said and wrapped his arms around Grayson's back, fingers digging into his shirt.

Damian had never felt this abandoned before. Even when his mother had left him in Father's care, it had felt like an opportunity to prove himself. To be seen by Father and be worthy of his respect. Mother had told him many stories about what a great man his father was, to remind Damian that he should be proud of his lineage and his accomplishments.

Yet there was no consanguineous relation between him and Grayson, no reason for Grayson to pay more attention to Damian than to his own daughter. He had said it himself: she would have to do nothing to earn his love, and there was no way for Damian compete with that. All of his abilities meant nothing if he couldn't _use _them to gain advantage.

* * *

"He misses you," Kori said once everyone was gone, Mar'i had been put to bed, and the apartment felt a little more like theirs again. 

"We saw each other just last—" Dick couldn't actually tell with any amount of certainty when he and Damian had last hung out together, just the two of them. He sighed as he helped Kori clear away the dishes.

"See? You are not paying attention to him like you used to. It hurts him."

"Come on, Damian is not going to be hurt by something like that," Dick said, hearing the lie even as it was coming out of his mouth.

"If you truly believe that, then you are not as smart a man as I thought you were, Dick Grayson," Kori said and poked him on the forehead.

Dick's shoulders sagged as he scraped off leftovers into the trash. "What do you suppose I should do? I'm pretty sure he's going to be onto me if I suddenly schedule outings with him. I mean, I can't use Mar'i as an excuse because he hates her. I think he'd sooner kill her than play with her."

"He is just jealous of her. Give him some time. I am sure that he will – how do you say? – come around?"

Dick loaded the dishwasher and embraced his girlfriend. "And that's why you are the smarter of us two."

"I'm glad you agree."

* * *

Dick did his best to include Damian more in his life again, but he was only human. Fallibility was in his nature. And anyway, Damian didn't seem to appreciate him going out of his way to spend more time with him.

Perhaps he knew Dick was doing it in part to appease his guilty conscience. At the same time, Dick also thought that he appeasing Damian again.

That was, until he found him in his daughter's room one night. Kori had found him there and called Dick to deal with him. The green glow of the energy ready to blast from her outstretched hand if Damian made one wrong move toward their daughter gave Damian a sickly appearance.

It also made the curved knife in his hands glitter.

For a brief moment, Dick felt a surge of relief that Mar'i hadn't woken yet and startled them all.

"Damian," he said slowly, sharing an uneasy glance with Kori and inching his way toward Damian. "What are you doing with the knife?"

"It's not a knife, it's a _jambiya. _A dagger," Damian said simply, twisting the ornate handle around in his gloved fingers.

He was in his Robin colors, and it startled Dick to think he hadn't noticed it before. Robin was as much part of the night as it was part of Damian; for some reason, it would have been stranger to see him here without his uniform.

"Grandfather gave me one on my fifth name day," Damian continued in a quiet voice. "The blade was made of the finest Damascus steel, the hilt of the horn of a rhinoceros he hunted himself when he was a younger man." He slid the blade into its sheath again. "It was important to me that I find one that did not use animal bone of any kind. This one is made with ebony."

"That's... nice." Dick didn't understand why Damian was telling him all this, but he was willing to listen.

"It's my gift."

"Your gift?"

Kori was as startled as he to hear this, and her aura winked out. She ignited her energy again as soon as she was composed enough to, this time as a flame dancing in the palm of her hand, meant simply as illumination, not as a weapon.

"Yes," Damian said. "She needs to learn how to protect herself."

Dick was not going to ruin Damian's moment of goodwill by pointing out that she'd hurt herself more than help herself with the blade.

"I will show her how to use it and what it means when the time comes."

A burst of pride filled Dick's chest at Damian's words. Had he finally accepted her as family? "I'm glad of that, and I'm sure she will be, too." Still, he remained antsy; it wasn’t that he didn't trust Damian, but he would still feel a lot calmer to see the dagger out of Damian's hands and his daughter's reach. "I can keep it safe until then."

Damian nodded and turned toward Dick. "Until then, I will protect her, too." To Dick's surprise, Damian went down on one knee and held up the dagger to him. "This, I pledge."

Dick also knelt and pulled Damian in for a hug. "What changed, baby wing?"

"Do not call me a baby. I can hurt you even when I am not carrying a weapon. As I am now."

"You'll always be my baby brother, though," Dick teased, feeling that he could get away with it. "No matter your age or your size. So? What changed? You didn't seem to like her much in the beginning to be giving her precious gifts now."

Damian heaved a long-suffering sigh and pushed Dick away. "She's your blood. I can try to deny it all I want, but I cannot change that fact. And that means something. I am the son of the Bat and you have accepted me even though we are not kin. I think I can extend your daughter the same courtesy."

"Hear, hear," Dick said and ruffled Damian's hair. It was all he managed to get out. If he said any more, the tears would be too obviously choking him. Damian would surely fault him for being overly emotional, which would be true, but Dick wanted to appreciate this moment just a little longer.

Gently, Kori ushered both of them out of Mar'i's bedroom by suggesting she make them a hot chocolate. Dick was the first to jump at the invitation and he pulled Damian along, who grudgingly agreed to have a cup. With marshmallows, since Dick insisted.

"Stay here," Dick said. "I'll pull out the sofa and let Bruce know you're here so that Alfred can pick you up in the morning."

Dick didn’t expect Damian to accept, but was delighted when he did. He had missed sleeping under the same roof as Damian, feeling like he was part of a little extended family.

Except this time, he could let Damian be part of his.


End file.
